


The Bells of Denver County

by comebacknow



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Coffeeshop AU, Goose Fic, M/M, Magic AU, So many AUs, Uni AU, Untitled Goose Game - Freeform, Witch AU, and fowl language AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA sorry, familiar AU, teresa is his familiar, thomas is a witch, tmrss, warning for a LOT of foul language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28199889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comebacknow/pseuds/comebacknow
Summary: Thomas has terrible luck, but with the approaching Ringing of the Bells, an ancient legend of Denver, he has a chance for things to work in his favor. If only he can figure out how to manage that on top of exams and dealing with his Familiar, a goose named Teresa.
Relationships: Minho/Thomas (Maze Runner)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 15
Collections: Maze Runner Secret Santa 2020, Pieces of Thominho





	The Bells of Denver County

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IceBreeze](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceBreeze/gifts).



> Hello Secret Santa!!
> 
> You asked for:  
> 1\. Au where thomas has a guardian goose like the untitled goose game goose that protecc, attacc, but more importantly, it love Thomas (non apocalypse setting is fine, apocalypse setting is also fine, pls do what works best for you)
> 
> 2\. Au where Teresa is a goose
> 
> 3\. Modern magical au where they're uni housemates and thomas is a witch whose familiar is a goose 
> 
> You also asked for:  
> \- Thomas & Gally, Minho/Thomas, Thomas & Teresa
> 
> I tried my hardest to smoosh ALLLLLLL of these requests into one strange fic. I hope you enjoy and I hope this entertains you as much as it did me. Happy holidays!!

* * *

_ There’s a legend that has circulated Denver County for as long as anyone can remember. It is said that when the bells on the hills ring at midnight at the start of the new year, no bad luck can befall you while they sound. It’s only when they are silent that townspeople have to watch their backs. _

_ When the bells rang in 1598, Madame Saxe was the first person to discover her magical abilities. _

_ In 1603, Professor Mowbray was struck with the answer of how to wield and control magic. _

_ In 1862, Elmlez Griger was the first witch to communicate telepathically with his familiar. _

_ In 1957, Deborah Irwin learned of an old family fortune that had been left to her from her ancestors, making her the second richest person in the whole country.  _

_ Each year, the people of Denver County gather in the valley below the hills and wait for the bells to ring so they can achieve their greatest dreams and desires. There is always a story to tell, whether it is about inventing the Angevin Talisman, winning a lottery scratch-off, or even just a simple story about mutual pining.  _

  
  
  
  


🔔  🔔  🔔

  
  
  
  
  


**The Bells of Denver County**

  
  
  


Thomas is woken up by a sudden shout of a single word.

“ _ FUCK! _ ”

He scrunches his eyes shut even tighter as he struggles to hold on to the remaining wisps of his dream. There was a birthday party, he’s pretty sure. He thinks his cousin was there--

“Thomas! Thomas, man, get up.  _ Fuck. _ ”

Thomas gives up on the birthday party dream and rolls onto his stomach, shoving his face into the pillow as his head starts to throb. 

“Mother _ fucker _ ,” Gally mutters again under his breath. “Again with this shit.”

Thomas finally brings his face away from the pillow and looks out into the dorm room through hazy eyes. “What is it?”

“Fuckin’ Teresa, man. Look at this shi-- Hey! Get away from that!”

Thomas pushes himself up to his elbows to see Gally waving his hands at a goose which seems to be trying to cause further damage to the collection of sneakers at the bottom of Gally’s closet. 

_ Hey _ , Thomas thinks. _ Hey, tss. Over here _ . 

The goose continues to flap its wings as it backs away from Gally’s waving hand.

_ Tss. Hey!  _ he tries again.

When the goose doesn’t seem to register his thoughts, Thomas puts a hand to his chest and a heavy weight drops inside of him when he feels nothing but bare skin. He pushes up from the mattress and scrambles around it, sliding his hands over the sheet and beneath his pillow.

“Go!” Gally shouts again to it. “Thomas, I’m five minutes from setting Ben on this thing.”

“Her name is Teresa. The least you could do is be nice until I… Where the fuck is it?” Thomas pulls himself from the bed and shakes out his comforter. A thin, black velvet chain with a dark green gemstone in the center falls from the folds of the blanket and lands onto the floor. Thomas snatches it up and eyes the golden clasp. The weight in his stomach drops further again as he realizes the clasp is broken. 

“That’s it,” Gally says from somewhere behind him.

Thomas pockets the chain and spins around, reaching forward and slipping his fingers into the matching talisman around Teresa’s neck. “Over here, you.”

Teresa seems flustered at the abrupt tug to her collar, but steadies herself at Thomas’ side quickly. 

Gally’s shoulders drop in an exhale. There’s a sneaker clutched in his hand that Thomas is pretty sure was about to be used as a weapon.

Thomas follows his gaze to the bottom of the closet where another of Gally’s sneakers is frayed around the edges in a similar display to a pair that had been destroyed earlier in the semester. Thomas scrubs his free hand over his face and drops it in defeat. “I’ll buy you a new pair.”

“That’s the second pair you owe me. I still haven’t gotten the first.”

“I know, I know.”

“Learn to fucking control her, man.”

“My Angevin must’ve broken during the night. I’m sorry.”

Gally sighs (more of a grunt, really) and tosses the sneaker next to the other. “Whatever.”

Thomas loops a belt through Teresa’s collar and connects her to the bottom post of his twin-sized bed. “Stay,” he says, even though he knows she won’t understand it. He crawls back into his bed and collapses onto his stomach. And then his alarm goes off.

\--

  
  


Thomas tugs on the belt again and clenches his jaw as Teresa flaps her wings angrily, rustling the papers on Thomas’ desk. A nearby chihuahua stares at her and rests its head on its owner’s boot. Thomas looks up to meet the boy’s eyes with an embarrassed sort of smile.

The boy, however, is staring at Teresa with an unpleasant look on his face.

Thomas looks back down at her and leans forward. “Will you behave?” he whispers harshly, giving another tug to the collar.

“Mr. Greene?”

Thomas’ head pops up as he looks down the bleacher rows to where Professor Janson is eyeing him with a quirked brow. “Yes?” Thomas asks. 

Professor Janson gives a moment to the assorted snickers and then folds his hands in front of himself. “Would you care to answer the question?”

Thomas blinks quickly, trying to remember at least a single word of what he’d been talking about. He flicks his gaze up to the whiteboard behind him where magnetic field diagrams are drawn, but there isn’t nearly enough detail to figure out what was actually asked. “Uh, sorry,” Thomas says. “I’m...not sure.”

“Yes,” Janson sneers. “Well, that much is clear.” He turns from the students and walks over to his desk. “As a reminder to all students,” he begins louder, “bringing your familiars to class is a privilege. It would do you well to keep them under control, and if you cannot keep them from being a distraction to the class, you will be asked to leave.” He finishes the sentence with a pointed look at Thomas. “And with that, Trent will be returning your preview quizzes from last class. I’d like you all to review these because Friday is quickly approaching and your final will bring a much more difficult version of this.”

Thomas shifts his gaze over to where Trent, Janson’s panther, easily balances a paper tray on his head and slinks up and down the bleachers, delivering the quizzes.

“Once you have your quiz, you may leave. Thank you.”

Thomas sinks lower in his seat and watches as Trent makes his way down his row. As he gets nearer, Teresa’s wings start subtly twitching. “No, no, no, no, no,” Thomas whispers, tugging gently on the belt again. “Do not attack,” he hisses at her. “Do not.”

Her feathers ruffle once more and her neck starts to extend forward as Trent approaches.

Trent suddenly pauses and swivels his head to look down toward Janson. The dark orange gem on his collar glows.

Thomas follows his gaze to see the annoyed look on Janson’s face. There’s a soft orange glow shining through the white material of Janson’s jumper.

Trent turns then and hops up to the row behind Thomas and continues to bring the stack of quizzes around to everyone else in the room. Finally, he slinks down to Janson and sits next to him.

Janson removes the tray from Trent and takes the remaining quiz from it and stares down at it. 

Thomas chews on his tongue for a moment until he’s sure he’s the only one left in the classroom and then finally stands up and swings his backpack onto his shoulder. He shuffles Teresa out of the row of seats and makes his way down to the floor.

“Mr. Greene,” Janson greets and then eyes Teresa. “Do we have to send you back to remedial telepathy studies?” 

“My Angevin broke while I was sleeping.”

Janson’s eyes flick back to him and then he holds out the quiz to Thomas. “You’ll have that fixed before next class, I presume, or I expect I won’t be seeing you and will have to mark your final as a zero.”

Thomas swallows as he takes the last quiz and glances quickly at the B- scrawled at the top. “Of course.”

Janson eyes Teresa once more and then turns from the two of them, Trent slinking behind him. “You’re dismissed.”

Thomas works his jaw in frustration, but turns from Janson, tugging Teresa behind him as he walks up the stairs and exits the classroom.  
  
  


The Wiccan College of Knowledge in Denver has a campus that stretches across a quarter-mile of space. For a relatively small town, Denver has a certain sort of charm to it that nestles itself around the old red-brick buildings. Small cobblestone pathways wind through grassy knolls that lead from a library to a science lab to a stretch of dormitories and more. 

Thomas skirts around a pair of students, their familiars trotting alongside them and eyeing Teresa suspiciously before going about their normal business. Thomas continues to tug her along until he reaches the Saxe Oak in the center of campus. 

There, of course, is a line to the tree. It’s very rare he ever reaches the tree in time to be first in line when he leaves class on time, nevermind when he’s the last to leave. So he waits, holds Teresa close, and tries to ignore the way people in line turn to look over their shoulders at her in judgement. He pulls his phone from his pocket and scrolls quickly through his messages. 

There’s one from Gally answering an earlier text of his and telling him he’ll drive him to work, and there’s another from his mom asking about visiting the campus. Thomas ignores that one and texts Gally. 

**At Saxe Oak. Be there soon.**

After another few minutes, he’s finally up to Saxe Oak and presses his palm to the knot on the side. The bark splits and opens up to him and he drags Teresa forward, shoving her inside before him. He quickly shuffles in behind her, keeping his back to the few people who wandered in line behind him. The bark closes and a map glows bright ahead of him. He quickly types in his dormitory address and waits as it registers in the system.

“ _ Glade Dormitories. Please confirm. _ ”

“Yes,” he says, leaning back against the bark wall.

A light switches green above him and then there’s a cold rush of air that swirls around him. 

A second later, the light turns off and the voice comes back on. “ _ Glade Dormitories. Please take all belongings and watch your step. _ ”

The bark splits open again and Thomas steps out from the birch tree in front of his dorms, pulling Teresa behind him. 

He shuffles through the automatic glass doors and down the small hallway, ignoring the look of a group of girls as Teresa continues to flap her wings, flustered about something or other. He walks down the hallway and finally reaches his room. He presses his hand against the door panel and a second later it glows. 

“ _ Welcome, Thomas Greene _ .” 

The door slides open and Thomas pulls Teresa in. “Fucking hell,” he sighs, swinging his backpack from his shoulder and tossing it onto his bed.

“S’up, Greenie. Did you get your Angevin fixed?” Gally asks, not even looking up from his phone. Ben, his golden retriever, is curled up on the bed next to him with his head resting on Gally’s knee. 

Thomas spends most days envying Gally for his familiar. Most people he knew had relatively tame familiars. For some reason, when he’d turned sixteen, Thomas had woken up on his birthday to a goose squawking wildly around his bedroom. It took him and his mom nearly three hours to clean the mess it had made.

“No,” Thomas sighs, shuffling through the clothes in his closet. “No time. I had Janson first thing and now I’ve gotta run to work.”

“Well, you’d better get that shit taken care of before you go to sleep tonight.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.” He yanks his work shirt and a pair of khakis down from a hanger. It takes him about five minutes to change into his uniform and run a hand through his hair. He grabs the bright blue baseball cap from the top of his dresser and shoves it into his backpack and then he and Teresa follow Gally and Ben out of the dormitories and over to the student lot.

Teresa is no better - possibly worse - in the backseat of Gally’s car. Three almost-accidents and another threat to sic Ben on her later, Gally finally pulls over to the curb outside of Jorge’s coffeeshop.

“What’re you doing?” Thomas asks, brow furrowed at the gear shift as Gally puts it in park.

“I’m meeting the guys here. Get some homework done.”

Thomas ignores the buzzing in his nerves and pulls Teresa out of the car, wrangling her into the shop. He makes it into the staff room finally and attaches the belt to the long rectangular table against the back wall. “Stay here. Do not cause any trouble,” he says to her. She fluffs her wings up agitatedly and then settles onto the floor.

He wraps a bright blue apron around himself, shoves the cap on his head and then heads out into the shop behind the counter where Brenda is wiping down the steamer. “Hey, hey.”

“What’s up with the belt?” she asks, nodding toward the staff room.

“My Angevin broke.”

“Oh shit,” she laughs. “That happened to me once. So annoying.”

Thomas glances over to where George, Brenda’s red panda, is snoozing on the windowsill. “I hardly think it was as much trouble as what I’m dealing with.”

“Eh, Georgie can be a little troublemaker, trust me.”

“Hey where’d you go anyway? To get it fixed?”

“Oh, I just gave it to Jorge.” She tosses the rag over toward the sink and then leans back against the counter. “He fixed it in about ten minutes.”

“Jorge can fix them?” 

“Yeah,” she shrugs. “He used to study them or some shit back when he was in school.”

“Wow,” Thomas says, brows quirking.

“Hey, trouble, what’s up?” Gally says then, leaning on the other side of the counter.

“Ugh,” Brenda says, spinning toward him. “What do you want?” There’s a smile that betrays her words and she holds out a fist to him.

Gally laughs and bumps his fist to hers. “Usual.”

“Iced?”

Gally winks at her and walks off toward a table by a window. Ben trots along next to him and then sits obediently next to his chair.

“Why couldn’t  _ I  _ get Ben?” Thomas asks, mournfully.

Brenda snorts as she loads a pint glass with ice. “Familiars are supposed to complement your soul. Why would you have a golden retriever?”

Thomas gapes at her. “What’s  _ that  _ supposed to mean? They’re cute! And fun! And happy, like, all the time!”

“And you’re constantly flustered and scrambling all over the place.”

Thomas narrows his eyes at her as the bell above the door dings. He shoots a glance over to the door and watches Frypan and Winston walk in and head over toward Gally’s table, a quokka and a rabbit trotting alongside them, respectively. “I could’ve at least had something a bit smaller.”

“You have a big personality,” Brenda says with a shrug. “It’s a compliment.”

Thomas shoots her another glare and then turns to make a coffee for himself. “Where is Jorge anyway?”

“He’s got a meeting or something,” she calls back over her shoulder as she walks the drink over to Gally. “I don’t know, he said he’d be back later.”

Thomas finishes making his drink and then looks up when the bell dings again. A girl walks in with a small canary perched on her shoulder. “Welcome to Jorge’s,” Thomas greets and leans his hands on the counter. “Would you like to try our seasonal gingerbread roast?”

“Yes please with extra milk.”

“Here or to go?” 

“To stay.”

“Okay, you can grab a seat, I’ll bring it over to you.” He turns from the counter and grabs one of the teacups from the shelf. It’s half-way filled when he hears the bell ding again. He glances over his shoulder and his stomach flips suddenly as his muscles tense. He’s suddenly very aware of what he’s doing, how he’s standing, and wondering if he’d checked to make sure he had no weird tufts of hair sticking out from the cap.

“S’up, Thomas?” Minho says with a quick jerk of his head.

“S’up?” he says back, gaze following him as he joins Gally and the others at their table. There’s a beautiful, sleek leopard that stalks behind him, moving like silk through the cafe. Thomas turns to look back down at the teacup and quickly stops the pour, one second from overflowing the cup and burning his hand. He awkwardly pours some of the coffee out into the sink and then fills the cup to the top with milk.

“See?” Brenda murmurs as she walks past him. “Flustered.”

“Fuck off.” 

“I haven’t gotten his order yet if you wanna flap over and get it. See what I did there? Flap over?”

“Yeah, here’s a bird for you.” Thomas flips her off with his free hand as he walks over to the table the girl took. He places the coffee in front of her and when she declines anything further, he makes his way to the table with his friends. “Hey guys.”

“Hey, Thomas!” Winston greets.

“Brenda’s got all your drinks, right?”

“Oh, not mine,” Minho says, reaching behind him into his backpack. He pulls out a maths textbook and then drops a notebook next to it on the table. “Uhhhhh, lemonade, I guess?”

“Yeah,” Thomas nods, pulling his gaze from the ribbon of muscle in Minho’s arm. “Yeah, anything else?”

“No, that’s fine,” he says, flipping his notebook open.

“Number Theory, huh?”

Minho looks up at him with raised brows and then down at his textbook which is titled:  _ Number Theory _ . “Yup,” he sighs, flipping the textbook open. “Fascinating stuff.”

Thomas nods at the top of Minho’s head. He looks up when he feels eyes on him and sees Frypan and Gally both staring at him. He narrows his eyes at them and spins on his heel to head back to the counter.

“Smooth,” Brenda murmurs to him as she passes him with two drinks in her hand.

The next hour is a blur of students getting out of their afternoon classes. He’s able to glance over in Minho’s direction every so often, but mostly he’s busy steaming milk and grabbing extra sugar packets from the stockroom. He’s in the middle of a frozen latte with extra caramel when he looks up and sees Minho holding an arm up to him in farewell as he leaves the cafe, leopard trailing behind him. Disappointment settles in his chest, but he soldiers through the rest of the shift a bit easier, no longer hyper aware of the window table.

By the time five o’clock rolls around and Alejandra comes in to relieve him of his shift, he’s exhausted and nursing a paper cut. He leaves a note in Jorge’s office asking him to call him about his Angevin, grabs Teresa, and then heads out to the corner bus stop. 

The ride back to campus is frustratingly slow in the height of rush hour, and he does his best to yet again ignore everyone staring at Teresa as she ruffles her feathers. He spends about seven whole minutes apologizing to a woman after Teresa snaps her beak at her for passing him too closely. 

He treks his way across campus, tugging Teresa behind him and then he’s back in his dorm room attaching the belt to his bed again. 

“Well?” Gally asks, clicking away on his phone as Ben gnaws on a chew toy. “Did you fix it?”

“Jorge didn’t show.”

Gally drops his phone to the bed and leans forward. “Thomas, I’m not going through this again tomorrow morning. You need to cage her up or something if you can’t keep her controlled.”

“She’s not gonna do anything, Gally, she’s leashed to the bed.”

“So? Like that’s actually gonna stop her? If another pair of my sneakers gets ruined it’s your ass.”

“Then take them off the floor!”

“I shouldn’t have to! Control her!”

There’s a loud honk that interrupts them as Teresa lunges forward toward Gally, but is immediately pulled back by the belt.

Ben is on all fours immediately and in front of Gally staring back at her.

Thomas lazily gestures to her with his hand. “See? The belt works fine.”

Gally rolls his eyes and falls back onto his bed, picking his phone back up. “I swear to God, Greenie. One more fuckin’ mistake…”

Thomas presses his fingers to his eyes and then picks his own phone up. There’s no message from Jorge at all and the prospect of having to go through another full day without his Angevin to communicate with Teresa is enough to nauseate him. He falls asleep considering the repercussions of skipping the next day of classes.

  
  


\--

  
  


By two o’clock the following afternoon, Jorge finally texts him. 

**Meet at the cafe after your classes. Bring Teresa.**

Thomas steps out of Saxe Oak and immediately starts jogging forward as he types a “thank you” in response. He’s cut short when he bumps into someone. Immediately, a heavy weight slams into his chest, knocking the air from his lungs, and then there’s damp grass pressing against his back. He blinks his eyes open to hot breath against his face and looks up into honey brown eyes and a soft, velvety snout.

“Newt, hey!” Minho’s voice says somewhere out of sight. 

A bright red gem glows around the leopard’s neck and then his paws step back from Thomas’ chest.

Thomas coughs out a breath and gasps for air, finally looking up to see Minho smirking down at him.

“Shit. Are you okay?” Minho laughs, holding out a hand.

Thomas blinks from Minho to Newt, who is now obediently sitting next to him, licking his paw. He looks back up to Minho and grasps his hand. He’s pulled up and then brushes at his jeans. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, sorry. I was, uh,” he trails off, looking around the grass for his phone. 

Minho hands it over. “Sorry. You know how it is.” There’s a sheepish sort of smile to him and Thomas feels heat burst in his chest. 

“Uh, yeah, no. It’s fine. Teresa does the same thing if someone bumps into me.”

Minho frowns then and shoves his hands in his pockets. “Where is she, anyway?”

“Back at the dorm.” Thomas scratches the back of his head. “My Angevin broke, so I need to get it over to the cafe so Jorge can fix it up for me. It’s been kind of tough not having it.”

“Oh,” Minho nods. “That explains it.”

Thomas furrows his brows at him.

“I just noticed her kind of acting up yesterday when you were walking across campus. Usually, she’s pretty calm next to you.”

Thomas looks down at his phone quickly to finish typing out the message in hopes that he’s able to hide the flush that peaks across his cheeks. The idea that Minho has seen Thomas losing control of his familiar is enough to send him to an early grave.

“Well, I hope you’re able to get it sorted,” Minho says.

“Um, yeah,” Thomas nods at his phone, still refusing to look up.

“I’ve… gotta get to class.”

Thomas looks up briefly and nods. “Okay. Have fun.”

An odd moment passes as the two of them stand there. Newt yawns widely.

“Sorry again,” Minho says, nodding down to the leopard. He points briefly at Thomas’ chest. “Might wanna change before you head out.”

Thomas looks down at his chest where two massive damp spots take up his jacket in the spots where Newt’s paws landed. “Right,” he nods. (Because he really needed another reason to be embarrassed in front of Minho.) “Okay, well. See ya.” He spins on his heel and takes off toward his dormitories, heart pounding beneath his ribs.

  
  


\--

  
  


Thomas pulls Teresa into the coffeeshop once again by the belt. His broken necklace is stuffed in his pocket and he avoids the looks from patrons in the shop and their equally-as-judgemental familiars. 

Winston’s rabbit twitches its nose at Teresa and looks up at Winston as if to say  _ can you believe how undignified? _

Thomas kind of wants to set Teresa loose on the rabbit, but he tugs her along to the back room.

Jorge sits at his desk surrounded by paperwork, but instantly looks up when the door opens. “Thomas! Hey!” His eyes snap down to Teresa who ruffles her wings and lets out a small honk as Thomas nudges her inside with his foot.

Thomas says hi to Jorge and then immediately pulls his Angevin from his pocket. “Please,” is all he says to him as he hands it over.

Jorge lets out a small laugh and takes it from him. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of this. I’m gonna need a few hours with this. Possibly a full day, depending on the damage of the connection. You’ll have to leave Teresa here, too.”

Thomas’ nerves jump. “I have a final tomorrow in Telepathic Control, I need to bring her with me and I definitely need that fixed.”

Jorge whistles and eyes the Angevin. “I can do my best. What time is your exam?”

“Eleven o’clock.”

Jorge rubs his forehead and then waves a hand at Thomas. “Better to let me get started then.”

Thomas clenches his jaw and flicks his gaze between Jorge and Teresa. He nods once. “Teresa, be good,” he says, knowing full well she won’t understand a single word. He opens the door to leave and watches as she flaps forward toward him, instantly stopping as her collar tugs from where it’s connected to the belt. “It’s okay,” Thomas says. “Stay with Jorge.”

Teresa flaps her wings again and tries to follow Thomas.

“Best if you just leave,” Jorge nods.

Thomas swallows and nods quickly before disappearing back out into the cafe. He gives a wave to Alejandra and then tries not to think about what’s going to happen if he can’t get Teresa back in time for his exam - and worse: what will happen if he gets her back without a fixed Angevin.

  
  


\--

Back at the dormitory, he eyes Ben with frustration. 

“It’s not my fault I know how to take care of things,” Gally says, hardly looking up from his notebook. 

Thomas rolls his eyes. “It’s not like I dropped it or did anything stupid with it. It came off while I was sleeping.”

“Because you toss and turn like a maniac.” Gally puts his pen down and turns to face Thomas with a smirk. “Anyway, Angevin aside, I heard Newt attacked you today.”

Thomas falls back onto his bed with a sigh. “He literally knocked me on my ass.”

Gally snorts. “What’d you do?”

“Nothing! I accidentally bumped into Minho coming out of Saxe Oak. I didn’t even realize he was standing there.”

“Well that’s a first.”

Thomas pops up from his bed. “It’s fine, though. You know why it’s fine? Because I have a plan.”

“Oh this should be good.” Gally leans back in his chair to face Thomas and bites down on the edge of his pen, waiting.

“Listen, after tomorrow, Finals are done, right? So everyone’s gonna be much more relaxed. We have the winter candle-lighting ceremony down at the valley and then we have one week until the Ringing of the Bells.”

“You and these goddamn bells, man.”

“Just because you don’t believe in them, doesn’t mean the rest of us are stupid too.”

There’s a soft growl from Ben but it dies out when his Angevin glows. 

“So, at the candle ceremony, I’m going to bring up the Bells. Make sure Minho’s going, all of that. And  _ then  _ I’m gonna see if he’ll want to go with me-”

“Wait,” Gally shakes his head. “Go  _ with  _ you? You know it’s not like, some dance or anything, right? If anything you should be asking him to go to the candle-lighting ceremony with you.”

“I can’t do that.”

“And why not?”

“Because there’s nothing that leads up to it. I can’t just ask him out of the blue. My plan is to start planting seeds at the ceremony and then finalize it at the Bells.”

“I thought you were  _ planting seeds  _ back in October when you tried to inconspicuously wear a matching Halloween costume. Need I remind you how epic that fail was?”

“Were the air-quotes necessary?”

“Going as a vampire slayer when your crush is a vampire makes no sense, Greenie.”

“Just drop the Halloween party, okay?” Thomas rubs a hand down his face and drops his hands to his lap. “Listen. I’m going to hang with him at the candle-lighting ceremony.  _ YOU  _ need to snag a table and make sure we’re sitting next to each other.”

“Excuse me?”

“I can’t be obvious about it. So you need to make sure Fry and Winston don’t do some stupid shit like sit on either side of Minho-”

“Why would they-?”

“-and I can’t do it because I can’t chance Minho seeing me be obvious about sitting next to him.”

“Why do you even need to sit next to him? Is this fifth grade? Are we ten again? Did I miss the time-travel?”

“I need to sit next to him because while Ava is doing her end of semester speech or whatever, I’ll be able to still talk with him quietly.”

“Oh, because of all the interesting conversation topics you’ll have.”

Thomas blinks at Gally. “Yes.”

Gally sighs with a shake of his head. “Right. So how does this get you a date to the Bells?”

“Because, genius, we’ll have a great time together at the candle-ceremony and then  _ you  _ will bring up looking for a date for the Bells-”

“Why do all of your plans involve me when I literally want nothing to do with them?”

“-and then Fry and Winston will obviously bring up the fact that they’re going together. I will casually throw out the fact that I have no date-”

“-a surprise to nobody-”

“-and then Minho will confess that he also doesn’t have a date and that he’s bummed about it. Then  _ you  _ suggest that he and I go together and I play it off very casually and we agree to be each other’s date. Then, during the Bells ceremony, I make a joke about how people think we actually  _ are  _ together. He laughs and says it wouldn’t be so bad, and when the bells ring, I actually  _ do  _ ask him to be my boyfriend. He obviously says yes, we probably kiss - I don’t know, I haven’t worked out how that transition works yet - and then when the bells stop, it’s done! We’re together! We walk off into the sunset with Newt and Teresa in tow.”

Gally blinks at him. “First of all, none of that is going to happen and you’re psychotic. Second of all, if you put Teresa anywhere near Newt, he will probably eat her. That dude’s been eyeing her like a chicken dinner since they met.”

“She’s a goose, not a chicken. Respect, Gally. It’s simple.”

“Anyway, if you’re so sure that Minho is gonna be on board for this plan, why do you even want to wait for the Bells? Isn’t that, like, superficial? Like it’s an outside force making sure you two are together rather than him just actually liking you?”

Thomas blinks at him. “Gally. It’s me.”

“Wow! You finally get it!” 

Thomas flips him off, Ben growls, and Thomas flips him off too. “So, what do you think?”

“I think you’re an idiot.”

“Okay, great. So nothing new there.”

Gally sighs. “Listen, in all honesty, I don’t think this plan makes any sense at all. But then, nothing you do makes much sense to me. But you’re my friend-”

“-sorry, can you repeat that, I just wanna get a video of you saying that-”

“- _ and as your friend _ ,” Gally emphasizes, speaking over him, “I am going to help you. If only to get some peace of mind so you don’t have to sit here every night pining over him.”

Thomas clicks away from the video on his phone and tosses it to the side. “Thanks, Gally.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” he says, turning back to his notebook. “I still think this is going to epically fail.”

Thomas sighs and looks over at Ben.

Ben has his head resting on his paws, and his eyebrows shift as he looks up at Thomas.

“You believe in me, right?” Thomas asks him.

Ben shifts his gaze to Gally and then lifts his head as he looks at Thomas. He stands and trots over to Thomas, bumping his head into Thomas’ knee before jumping up onto Gally’s bed and curling into a ball to nap. 

Thomas allows a small smile that he flashes to the back of Gally’s head. If the glowing Angevin around Ben’s neck was anything to go by, Thomas knows that Gally will have his back.

  
  


\--

  
  


Thomas leans his neck forward as Jorge tightens the clasp around his neck. “You are a lifesaver, I’m telling you.”

“Yeah, well, let’s just hope it works. I kind of had to rush a lot of the specs.” Jorge steps away from Thomas and nods to him. “Well, try it out.”

Thomas turns to where Teresa is sifting her beak through a box of napkins. He focuses on the weight of the Angevin at his neck and then pushes his thoughts into the center of it.  _ Teresa? _

He feels the Angevin heat for a split second and then it dies out. Teresa continues to be fascinated by napkins.

Thomas stretches his neck to the side and rolls his shoulders back to try again.  _ Teresa, _ he says, pushing the word to the center of the Angevin. He turns to Jorge with a quirked brow.

“I knew that rosewater wasn’t sufficient enough.”

“What?” 

Jorge shakes his head. “Thomas, I only had a certain blend of ingredients to fire that up again. You needed it by today, I had to make do with what I could.

“What are you saying?” he asks, his voice cracking at the end.

“I’m saying, it will work, but not well.”

Thomas turns from him and stares at Teresa again. Her head pops up from the box as she maniacally chews a pile of napkins. Thomas takes a deep breath and turns to look at her. She tugs on the belt and brings her attention to him. He tries to force the word out of him and into the Angevin once more. He feels it heat up against his chest and watches as the gem around her collar glows as well.

_ Yes?  _ she asks.

“AH!” Thomas shouts, lifting his hands in the air.

“Did it work?” Jorge asks.

“I think so!”

Teresa stares at him.

_ Teresa,  _ he tries again, and then breathes a sigh of relief as he sees her Angevin glow.

_ What? _

_ I’m making sure these work.  _ He turns back to Jorge. “I can’t thank you enough.”

Teresa, seemingly bored of this conversation, turns back to the napkins in the box.

Jorge gives him an odd sort of smile. “I can’t say it’s in perfect condition, but it’ll hopefully get you through your exam. When you’re done with that, come see me again so I can try to fix it.”

“It works fine!” Thomas says.  _ Let’s go Teresa. _ “I’ll see you on my next shift.” He walks toward the door and then turns around to see Teresa still in the box of napkins.  _ Teresa. _

Jorge narrows his eyes and looks between Thomas and Teresa.

Thomas clears his throat and walks back over to her. He tugs on her collar and she looks up at him. 

_ What? _

_ Did you not hear me? _

_ When? _

Thomas sighs and looks at Jorge.

“I’m guessing you need to be making eye contact?” Jorge asks.

“Seems like it.” He looks back down at Teresa. “Whatever. It’ll get me through tomorrow.”

Jorge folds his arms and shakes his head, but Thomas tries not to think about it. There’s really no space for negative thoughts right now. He tugs the belt connected to Teresa’s collar.

  
  


\--

  
  


His exam is a disaster. He fails miserably, of course, at the distance telepathy. If it hadn’t been for Teresa’s excellent response time for the orders she  _ could  _ hear, Janson probably would have failed him on the spot. Instead, he stares at his laptop back at the dormitory a few days later and sighs in relief at the C+. 

“It’s amusing to be that you’re proud of that,” Gally says.

“Shut up. You would be too if Ben and you couldn’t communicate and you still managed that.”

Gally shakes his head. “When  _ are _ you getting it fixed anyway. For real, I mean.”

“I don’t know.” He shuts his laptop and turns to look at Teresa. She’s staring back at him now. It’s an agreement they came up with two days ago. Unless he says otherwise, she’s to keep eyes on him at all times in case he needs to communicate.

_ Can I go to the closet now? _

Thomas flicks his gaze at Gally and then back to her.  _ No. _

“What’s she saying?” Gally asks.

“Nothing.”

“You looked at me.”

“No I didn’t.”

Ben stretches on the bed and hops off, sitting in front of Thomas and staring at him.

“Don’t threaten me,” Thomas says to him.

Ben turns and looks at Gally over his shoulder.

“Oh, I know,” Gally says, looking down at the candle-lighting flier in his hands. His Angevin is glowing at his chest, and Thomas feels a bite of jealousy again.

“You don’t have to respond to him out loud,” Thomas says quietly.

Gally smiles up at him, all teeth. “I know, but it’s fun to watch you panic about what we’re saying.”

Thomas rolls his eyes. “Anyway, have you figured out what you’re gonna say at the candle-lighting ceremony?”

Gally’s brows furrow. “What I’m gonna say to whom?”

“Minho.”

Gally’s eyes shift around the room and then find Thomas again. “I don’t know. Hi?”

Thomas sighs exasperatedly. “Gally, come on. You said you’d help.”

“I didn’t say shit,” he says, turning back to the flier. 

Thomas turns and looks at Teresa.  _ When he’s sleeping, eat the other shoe. _

  
  


\--

  
  


Thomas straightens his silverware for the fourth time in ten minutes.

“Will you stop it?” Gally asks, leaning back in his chair so it balances on two legs. “You look like a ten year old on their first date.”

“Who goes on a date when they’re ten?”

Gally sets his chair down normally now and stares across the small round table at Thomas. There’s a white tablecloth that glitters in the lights above. Snowflakes are hung from the ceiling, dangling above them on silver ribbon that matches the small centerpieces and plates. On the long table at the front of the ballroom are dozens upon dozens of tall, white candles. “I don’t understand why we had to come to this thing so early. Winston and Fry aren’t even here yet.”

Thomas barely hears him as he looks around the table again. His gaze lands on the chair two seats to his right. “Maybe I should sit over there. There’s probably a higher chance of him sitting next to me if I’m there.”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

Thomas jumps when he hears footsteps behind him, but it’s only Winston and Frypan joining them at their table. 

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!” Gally says, holding a hand out to Fry’s chest before he takes the seat next to him. “You’ve gotta ask Thomas where your assigned seating is.”

“Gally,” Thomas growls out.

“Assigned seating?” Winston asks, looking around the table with furrowed brows. “I thought it was a free-for-all.”

“It is. Just sit.” Thomas hears the chairs scrape against the floor as he drops his head to his hands. At the very least, the familiars stay home for the candle-lighting ceremony, so he doesn’t have to worry about Teresa making him look like a fool here. Instead, he left her with Jorge, hoping he could make adjustments to the Angevin as needed.

Still, he can’t help the small sigh of relief as Winston and Frypan take the seats on the right of him, leaving the one to the left of him open for Minho.

Gally snorts.

“Shut up,” Thomas growls out.

“Oh,” Frypan says suddenly, a small laugh following. “I get it now.”

“Get what?”

“This is about Minho, isn’t it?”

Thomas’ shoulders deflate.

“Oh, did Thomas inform you of his plan, too?” Gally asks.

“There’s a whole plan?”

“Shut up, he’s coming,” Thomas hisses. He straightens a bit in his seat and glares at Gally. “ _ Talk about something _ .”

Gally blinks at him.

“I passed my Astronomy final,” Winston says half-heartedly. 

“Great! Tell me more about that.”

“Well, I was actually kind of nervous because, to be honest, I kept confusing Jupiter’s moons which was bad because there was a long-answer question on it at the end, but then Fry taught me an acron-”

“Minho! I didn’t know you were coming!” Thomas smiles up at him and then gestures to the table. “Take a seat. Um, wherever.”

Minho nods a greeting at him and the others and then pulls out the only empty chair at the table. “How’s it going?”

“Good, yeah,” Thomas nods. He looks across the table at Gally, who’s now leaning back on his chair again with a smirk on his face that Thomas doesn’t like.

“Did you get your Angevin fixed in time for your final?”

Thomas snaps his gaze back to Minho. “Oh, we were just talking about our exams.”

“Yeah,” Winston says, “I was saying how in Ast-”

“How’d yours go?” Thomas asks as he grabs the pitcher of water and refills his glass.

Minho shrugs. “Not bad. Aced Astronomy, of course.”

“Easy A, right?” Thomas nods.

Minho tilts his head at him. “Have you taken it?”

Thomas picks up his water and gulps it down. “Uh, I, no. Not here, I mean. I just - I watched some video lessons on youtube. You know. Spare time and all that. How was Number Theory?”

“ _ That  _ was a pain in my ass.”

“Why? What - what happened?” Thomas watches Minho over the edge of his glass as he takes another sip.

“This is riveting,” Gally interjects, “but can we switch to a topic that  _ isn’t  _ related to exams? They’re over. Semester’s over. Let’s just enjoy the party.”

“Great idea,” Winston sighs.

“Yeah, sure,” Thomas nods enthusiastically and puts down his nearly empty water glass. “Any ideas on what to talk about instead, then?” He stares at Gally across the table.

Gally blinks at him. He folds his arms and looks over at Minho. “Are you working over the winter break?”

Thomas’ teeth slam into each other. He almost wishes Teresa were there so he could set her on Gally, but he shoves the thought aside and focuses on Minho instead. 

He doesn’t quite know when it was he really fell in love with one of his best friends, but somewhere between being partners in freshman alchemy class and visiting New York together the previous summer, something seemed to spark between them - at least on Thomas’ end.

“Thomas?”

He blinks his focus back to find Minho - and the rest of the table - staring at him. “Sorry, what?”

“Are you...working? Over break?” 

“Oh, uh, yeah. It’s the busiest season for the coffeeshop so Jorge needs all the help he can get. Plus, I think Brenda is taking a week off after New Year’s so I’ll probably have to pick up one or two of her shifts.”

“Huh,” Minho nods. “Maybe I’ll have somewhere to hang out after all.”

“What?” Thomas asks, wracking his brain to try to recall whatever Minho had been talking about while he was off down memory lane.

“While I’m here.” Minho’s brows dip in the center. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Me? Yeah. What? Of course.” He looks across the table to find Gally’s mouth twisted to the side as he tries to fight back a laugh. Thomas clears his throat. “Gally, can I, uh…?” he nods to the side and stands up from his chair.

Minho looks between the two of them and then pulls his chair in for Gally to walk past.

Thomas winds through a few of the tables and then rounds on Gally. “What the hell, man?”

“I was wondering the same thing, actually.”

“I need you to help me out!”

Gally gapes at him. “I  _ am  _ helping you out. I just left an opening for you to make plans with him over break.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Were you even listening? Fry and Winston are going back to Fry’s family’s house. I made up some bullshit excuse about going out of town, which leaves Minho and you in Denver. Alone. He basically just said he was gonna come hang out at the coffeeshop while you work and you just stared at him like he had ten heads!”

“What? I didn’t know that was happening!”

“Because you weren’t paying attention.”

“Well, that wasn’t part of the plan. Just stick to the plan! The Bells, Gally.”

“Your plan is stupid.”

“ _ The Bells, Gally.” _ Thomas turns on his heel and stalks back to the table.

“Everything okay?” Minho asks, glancing between the two of them.

“Fantastic,” Gally bites.

Thomas picks up the pitcher of water again and refills his glass, sighing. “Winston, how’d your Astronomy final go.”

  
  


\--

  
  


The line is moving slowly as the students wander up to the table to choose their candles. So far, the night has gone uneventfully, Gally doing everything in his power to bring up any topic except the Bells ceremony. It’s here, when they’re about ten people back in line, that Thomas finally takes a deep breath and sighs out, “so, Bells ceremony is coming up.”

Minho glances over his shoulder toward Thomas and then looks forward again. “Yep.”

Thomas presses his mouth together and then nods to himself.  _ Awesome _ , he thinks.  _ Great start. _ He turns around and shoots a glare at Gally, but Gally is too busy talking with Frypan and Winston again. He turns forward again. “So, uh, are you...you’re going again this year, right?”

“Um, yeah,” Minho nods. He steps forward as the line moves. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Are you going? I know Fry and Winston said they’ll be there. Last year was fun. We could all go together again, if you’re thinking about going? I figure Gally drives so maybe he’d be able to get us all there instead of taking the Saxe. That takes forever because it’s always busy that day.”

Thomas blinks at the back of Minho’s head. The line moves forward again. He tries to round up everything Minho’s said, but all he can focus on is  _ we should all go together _ . “Right,” he says. He steps forward again. “Yeah, no. I was thinking the same. A big group outing. All five of us.”

“Great!” Minho says. He reaches the table and picks up his candle.

“Great,” Thomas nods. He picks up his candle after Minho and then holds it out to light it. He briefly considers turning around and setting Gally up in flames, but instead follows Minho off to the side where they stand with their candle and wait. 

After what feels like an eternity, Minho finally speaks again. “Yeah, um, I know a lot of people think the Bells are pretty stupid, but we had fun last year.”

Thomas nods. “Yeah, totally, yeah.” He thinks back, remembering how the five of them spent most of the Bells sitting off to the side and laughing at the people trying to scramble within the minute or so the bells rang to accomplish their goals. Suddenly, Thomas feels like a child. Maybe Minho was right, maybe they were stupid. Maybe it’s something you wish upon when you’re younger and full of hope. He glances once more at Minho, but Minho just stares impassively out across the crowd.

When it comes time for the citizens of Denver to thank the witches before them for their powers, Thomas finds himself feeling empty. He barely murmurs the words and when he blows out the candle, he doesn’t wait for Minho as he walks off with Gally and the others.

\--

Gally stares at him from his bed, arms folded. He’s the epitome of unimpressed. “Why didn’t you just ask him?”

“Because, Gally, you were supposed to suggest it,” Thomas says, running a hand over his face. He drops it back to his own bed again and stares up at the ceiling. “This was so stupid.”

“I told you it was-”

“Gally, I really don’t need the affirmative right now.”

“I don’t get why you’re blaming me for this. If this is something you want, you need to take care of it yourself. I’m not here to play matchmaker. I didn’t do it for Fry and Winston, and I’m certainly not doing it for you two.”

“So much for a solid friendship.”

“I’m not getting involved in your romantic life. I’m here if you wanna vent it out, but you can’t put it on me to make things happen for you. Just like you shouldn’t be putting it on some stupid tradition.”

“Trust me, I figured that out.” Thomas pulls himself up and swings his legs over the edge of the bed. He looks over at Gally. “You know he doesn’t even take it seriously? He thinks the Bells are a joke.”

Gally’s brows furrow.

“He was laughing about them today and basically saying they’re stupid kids’ tales and that they’re not real. He wants us all to go together because he wants to laugh at everyone again.”

“He said that?”

Thomas sighs and gestures vaguely with his hands. “It doesn’t even matter. You were right, this whole thing is stupid. Maybe we just won’t even go.”

“No, dumbass, we’re going. I already told Winston and Frypan I’m gonna drive all of us.”

Thomas flicks his gaze up to Gally. “You guys talked about it?”

Gally shrugs and pulls his phone from his pocket. “Yeah. I figured you wouldn’t have the balls to ask Minho so the five of us would end up going together again, anyway.”

“Nice, Gal,” Thomas pushes up from the bed.

“What?”

“You know a little support wouldn’t kill you. I know you like to be this cool, loner guy who doesn’t care about things and doesn’t get into peoples’ business, but I’d like to think after all the time we’ve spent as each other’s roommates, you’d at least invest a bit of time into helping me out.”

“Over  _ Minho _ ?”

Thomas tucks his tongue into his cheek and turns from him. “I’m going to shower.” He pulls his pajamas from his dresser and glances back in time to see Gally’s and Ben’s Angevins glowing. He spends most of the shower thinking about ways to break it.

\--

  
  


Thomas pushes his way into the cafe and shivers as the overhead heating vent slams into him to contrast the snowy weather outside. He stamps his boots twice on the brown mat and walks gingerly toward the staff room, careful not to slip on the wet floor.

The cafe is bustling today with patrons eager to hide out from the snow and keep themselves warm with peppermint and gingerbread flavored drinks. He nods hello to Brenda and Alejandra behind the counter and ducks into the back office. 

Teresa greets him by flapping toward him and then promptly being tugged back by the belt keeping her attached to the back table. 

“Thomas!” Jorge says, turning in his chair. “Glad to see you.”

“Yeah,” he exhales, tugging his gloves off and shoving them in his pockets. “Here for good news, hopefully.”

“And good news, you’ll get! I’ve got everything I need,” Jorge gestures to the desk in front of him. Both his and Teresa’s Angevins are neatly pried open, a dull glow coming from the inside of both. “It’ll be done before you go home tonight.”

“Thank god,” Thomas sighs. He rubs a hand against his forehead and then walks over to Teresa. He holds the back of his hand out to her until she nips softly at it. “Storm’s getting heavy out there,” he says back to Jorge, carefully.

“We’ll be open until nine like we are every day.”

Thomas drops his hand and rolls his eyes. “Well, it was worth a shot.” He hears Jorge’s soft laugh as he hangs up his jacket on the employee rack. He tugs his hat on and ties the apron around his waist. “Hey, Jorge. Can I ask you a question?”

“Hm?”

“Do you think there’s any truth to the old Bells legend?”

Jorge looks up from the work and pushes his glasses up to his hair. He turns to look over his shoulder at Thomas. “You mean up in the hills?”

“What other bells are there.”

Jorge shrugs and turns back to his work, pulling his glasses down. “There are the Maryland Bells. And I hear Oregon has a set of windchimes at the mouth of a cave. Texas has--”

“Alright, alright,” Thomas rolls his eyes. “Yes, the Denver ones.”

“Well, it’s said that when they ring, you’ve got until they finish to accomplish what you want done. It’s a period of pure good luck.”

“Yeah, I know the legend, but do you think there’s any truth to it?”

Jorge tilts his head back and forth as he continues to work. “I think there’s truth to anything if you give it the weight it deserves.”

Thomas presses his mouth in a line. “Do  _ you  _ believe in it?”

“I believe in putting in effort for the things you want. If some people need a bit of a push to spur that, then who am I to say it’s wrong?”

“Would a straight answer kill you?”

“Would starting your shift on time kill you?”

Thomas flicks his gaze up to the clock on the wall. Indeed, he’s now seven minutes behind schedule.  
  


Thomas hands over a hot caramel mocha to a young boy with a bear cub next to him and then turns back to Brenda for the next order.

She flashes him a quick smile and then turns toward the cabinet below the espresso machine. “Thomas, can you finish up with this customer? I think I got a papercut from the order pad.”

Thomas presses his tongue to the inside of his cheek as he walks up to the girl at the register.

“Anything besides the tea?”

“No, that’ll be all.”

He quickly rings her up, nods appreciatively at the tip she drops in the jar, and then flicks his gaze to the next person in line.

“Hey, man!” Minho greets with a smile.

“Uh, hey. Hey. What’s up?”

Minho shrugs with a slight frown. “Figured I’d stop by. Wasn’t doing anything back at the dorm and Aris is driving me crazy, so here I am.”

Thomas nods with a small smile. “I heard he has two familiars now?”

Minho tilts his head. “Well, if it was gonna happen to anyone…”

Thomas can’t help but agree. “Uh, what’re you having?”

“Lemonade is fine.” He looks around the cafe then at the crowded tables. Thomas follows his gaze until it lands on the one free table in the far corner of the cafe next to the window with the draft. “I’ll be out in Alaska, I guess.”

“Sure you don’t want something hot?”

Minho seems to consider this, shrugs and then says the two words Thomas was dreading most: “surprise me.”

What feels like an eternity later, Thomas brings over a warm cinnamon-spiced lemon zinger. He rattles off three other options he can make if Minho doesn’t like it, but Minho takes a single sip, smiles and says it’s perfect. Though Thomas can’t really see if from his place behind the counter as he works through the night shift, the words are enough to put him in a marginally better mood as he deals with disgruntled, cold shoppers and impatient workers trying to rush home. 

Over the next few hours, the shop slowly empties out. Thomas spends some time whisking through small round tables and wiping them down, flicking his gaze up to the corner once in a while to see that the table is still occupied. But even when he can’t see Minho, he also never sees him leave the shop, and by eight-thirty, he starts letting a bit of hope build up in his chest that maybe - just maybe - Minho is sticking around til the end of his shift.

When Brenda tells him Jorge wants to see him about the Angevin, Thomas is reluctant to go in the back, scared that while he’s gone, he’ll miss Minho leaving, but when Jorge pokes his head out and calls for Thomas himself, he doesn’t really have much of a choice to procrastinate.  
  


He tests it out a few times, relief flooding through him when he feels the Angevin heat up at his chest even when Teresa is busy rustling through the wastepaper basket.  _ Tss, hey. Stop that. _

_ Why? _ she asks, still beak-deep in paper.

_ Just -- because. Can we make sure this works? _

_ Seems to be working just fine if we’re talking while I’m doing this. Multi-tasking, Tom. _

Thomas tucks his tongue into his cheek and turns back to Jorge. “Yeah, it works.”

“Great!” Jorge slaps his palms to his legs and nods at Thomas. “Now go clean up out there. We’ve gotta close up and get out of here before it gets too snowy out there.”

“We could’ve just closed early,” Thomas says lightly before pushing his thoughts down to his Angevin.  _ Let’s go. You need to help me close and keep an eye on Minho. _

_ Oh my god, this again? _

“Shut up.”

Jorge quirks a brow at Thomas.

“Sorry,” he says quickly. “That was...meant for her. Not you.”

“Uh-huh,” Jorge nods and eyes him skeptically. “Go close up.”

“Yes, sir.” Thomas spins on his heel and heads back out to the shop then.  _ Teresa! Let’s go.  _ He waits for her to waddle past him out into the shop and then he ducks back behind the counter with Brenda.

“Before you ask,” Brenda begins, “no. He hasn’t left.”

Thomas makes a face at her and then walks over to start unloading mugs from the dishwasher.  _ Teresa, go wander over by the corner. Keep an eye on him. _

_ You’re annoying. _

_ Just do it. _

Thomas has already unloaded the dishwasher and reloaded it with the last mugs and plates when Teresa pops into his head again, Angevin glowing against his chest.

_ He’s putting his laptop away. I think he’s leaving. _

Thomas’ eyes dart around the shop. They’ve still got at least fifteen minutes worth of work to finish up.  _ Distract him. Keep him from leaving. _

_ What the hell do you want me to do?  _

_ I don’t know. Just… figure something out! _

Thomas moves quickly then, zipping around Brenda as he tries to wipe down the display glass behind the counter.

“Are you okay?” Brenda snorts. 

“Just wanna...get out before it gets too bad out, y’know?”

“I think it’s a bit late for that.”

Thomas pokes his head up from the counter. “What?!” He stares outside.

Indeed, the snow falls swiftly down now in snowflakes the size of quarters. 

“Why do you think I stopped rushing?” Brenda continues. 

“Uh, we’re not getting stuck here.”

“Uh,” Brenda laughs, “we are.”

_ Teresa!  _ Thomas thinks to his Angevin.  _ What is he doing? _

_ He’s just sitting there. _

_ Is he, like, packed to go? Jacket on? _

_ No, he’s just sitting there. What did I just say? _

Thomas bites back an annoyed response at her and instead tosses the cleaning supplies aside and then walks around the shop, trying for an air of casualty. 

_ You look like you have a back brace on. _

_ Shut up. _

He straightens out a chair at one of the tables and then another. His gaze flicks up then and he can see Minho tucked into the corner table, scrolling on his phone. He gives himself a minute and finally makes a decision. He walks over and pauses a table away from him. “Oh hey! You’re still here.”

Minho’s eyes flick up to him and then he locks his phone. “Oh, yeah. I guess I didn’t realize how late it had gotten.”

“Yeah, we, uh. We’re closing right now.”

“Oh,” Minho nods twice and then quickly grabs his jacket from the chair next to him. “Well, uh, I should go then. Let you guys-”

“You don’t have to!”

Minho pauses with his arm in one sleeve of his jacket and looks up at Thomas.

_ Smooth. _

_ Shut the fuck up, Teresa.  _ Thomas clears his throat. “I just mean that, it’s clearly horrible out there. I’m sure Jorge would be okay with you hanging out here for a bit.”

“Oh,” Minho says. 

Thomas’ chest tightens as he watches the Angevin glow beneath Minho’s sweater. In the corner of his eye, he sees the matching one glow around Newt’s neck. “I mean, only if you want to. You’re obviously welcome to brave the storm also.” Thomas gestures toward the floor-to-ceiling windows like he’s Vanna White.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, okay.” He slowly sits down in the chair again.

“You can - I mean, you can sit here, or if you want, you can move to another table. Away from that window. I know there’s a draft there.”

“Right,” Minho laughs and scratches at his hair. “Yeah, I realized that.” His Angevin glows again and then Minho turns and shoots a glare at Newt.

Thomas flicks his gaze between the two of them and then clears his throat. “Well, I’m gonna work on cleaning up a bit more. Just… sit wherever you’d like.” He spins on his heel and stalks off behind the counter, ignoring Teresa’s snickers.  
  
  


_ Why aren’t you sitting with him?  _ Teresa asks.

_ Because that would be weird. I’m working.Technically. _

“Why aren’t you sitting with him?” Brenda asks.

Thomas throws his hands in the air and leans back against the counter. He glares at her and then flicks his gaze over to where Minho is sitting at a table with his jacket on, staring at his phone. Thomas lowers his voice and nearly whispers to Brenda. “Because, it’d be weird. We don’t really hang out on our own.”

“Aren’t you guys friends?”

“Will you keep your voice down?”

“Thomas, we still have music playing and he’s like ten feet away.”

“I know him through Fry and Winston, who I know through Gally. So we’re, like, fourth degree friends.”

Brenda rolls her eyes. “Well, you wanted to hang out with him at the Bells alone anyway, didn’t you? Just do it now.”

“Yeah, but the Bells will actually work in my favor. Somehow.” Thomas tilts his head, remembering how they’d all be going in a group again now. 

“You and this stupid legend. You know it’s fake, right?”

“Whatever. I at least have the possibility of a better chance then. Any other day, I’m like Bad Luck Benny.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know,” Thomas sighs and presses his hands to his eyes. “This is so weird. I don’t know what to do. Do I say something? Do I just let him sit there unbothered?”

“I think it’s more awkward that you’re  _ not  _ talking to him.”

_ What should I say? _ Thomas asks Teresa.

_ I think ‘hi’ would be a great place to start. _

_ Thanks, you’re super helpful. _

_ That’s what I’m here for. _

  
  


Another half hour passes before Thomas finally gives up and wanders over to Minho’s table. At that moment, Minho stands. They meet eyes, and Thomas immediately pushes thoughts into the Angevin.  _ Why is he standing?  _ His gaze flicks down to Minho’s glowing Angevin.  _ Oh GOD, this is weird he’s probably asking Newt what the fuck is wrong with me. What do I do? _

_ Oddly enough, I’m wondering the same thing. _

Thomas turns and furrows his brows at Teresa, but she’s busy poking her beak into the decorations by the door.

“Hi,” Minho says, pulling Thomas’ focus back.

“Hi. I was, uh, just, wondering how you were doing.”

“Good! I’m good. I was actually getting ready to head out.”

“Oh.” Thomas’ heart sinks. He looks out the windows to find the snow has, indeed, stopped. 

_ Way to go, Casanova. Seems you wasted all your time. _

“Shut up.”

Minho’s mouth twists to the side.

“Shit! Not you. I keep. I’m…” Thomas rubs his hand against his forehead.

Minho nods. “I know. I still slip up sometimes, too. Trust me.” As if to prove he’s lying, Minho’s Angevin glows at his chest.

“Right,” Thomas nods and clears his throat again. “Well, uh…”

Minho looks outside.

They’re both startled from the moment when George, Brenda’s red panda, lands swiftly on the table Minho is standing at. He stretches there and then hops off and wanders over to Brenda.

“Sorry about that,” Brenda drawls. “I told him to come over here, but sometimes he just… goes where he wants.”

Thomas briefly wishes he could communicate with  _ her  _ via Angevin.

“Anyway, Jorge says we can head out,” she continues. There’s a quick flash of a dark smile from her and then she turns to Minho. “It was nice seeing you again. Can you make sure this one gets home alright? I need to hang back with Jorge and I’m pretty sure he still doesn’t know how to fully control that goose of his.”

Thomas blinks at her.

“Uh, sure, yeah.” 

Thomas turns back to Minho. “It’s fine. You can go home. Ignore her. I’m good.”

“I don’t mind,” Minho shrugs. “You’re heading back to campus, right?”

Thomas bites the inside of his cheek and then nods. “Yep.”

“Great,” Minho shrugs. “Ready when you are.”

“Perfect.” Thomas nods. “I’m just gonna…” he points over his shoulder toward the staff door and then spins on his heel, shoots Brenda another glare and then shoves his way through the door to grab his belongings.  
  
  


Thomas tugs his scarf up a bit higher at the back of his neck and shoves his hands in his pockets. He turns to glance at Minho again, who’s standing still despite the low temperature. “How are you not freezing?”

Minho shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m fine.”

Thomas eyes the thin denim jacket that he’s left open and the thin red sweater beneath. He feels like he’s weaker somehow for shivering in a scarf and zipped up coat. “You should’ve just taken the bus.”

“I don’t mind walking.”

Thomas grits his teeth.  _ See what happens when you can’t control yourself around people? _

_ It’s my job to protect you. When creepy people get too close to you on a bus, I have to attack. _

_ You literally never have to attack. _

_ Will you pay attention? He’s asking you a question. _

“What?” Thomas asks, furrowing his brows at Teresa. He snaps his gaze back to Minho. “What?”

“Oh,” Minho looks up at him and then shakes his head. “Sorry, I didn’t realize,” he gestures to Teresa. “I didn’t - your Angevin is blocked by your coat. I didn’t know you guys were talking.”

“Oh, no. It’s fine. It’s not important. What were you saying?”

_ Oh, now I’m not important? _

_ Shut up. _

_ You missed his question again. _

Thomas sighs exasperatedly and turns to Minho. “I’m sorry. What was that?”

“Nothing,” Minho coughs and shakes his head. “Don’t worry about it. I was just saying the snow is...nice.”

Thomas grits his teeth and turns to look ahead again, but before he does, he catches the way Minho’s Angevin glows beneath his sweater. 

_ What did he ask, Teresa? _

_ Not my fault you can’t multitask. Maybe you should’ve failed your exam after all. _

Thomas bites the inside of his cheek and rounds the corner down a side street.

They walk in silence for the entire city block, the only sound the crunching of their boots in the snow. Puffs of smoke escape their mouths as they breathe and once in a while one of them will sniff or let out a shiver. 

When Minho shivers for the second time, Thomas turns to him. “Are you sure you’re not cold?”

“Yeah,” Minho nods and shrugs. “I’m used to cold weather. This is nothing for me.”

Thomas faces forward again and considers untying his scarf, but decides that’s stupid, so he just shoves his hands deeper into his pockets. 

  
  


“Well, thanks for walking me,” Thomas says and then immediately presses his mouth into a line. They’re standing in front of Minho’s dorm building now. Newt sits at the top of the steps, licking snow off of his paw. 

“Yeah, yeah, any time.” Minho nods.

“Uh, I work tomorrow, too. If you feel like making another adventure through Middle Earth,” Thomas laughs.

Minho lowers a brow at him

“You know. There was that snowy mountain pass? They were all, like, waist deep in snow? There was an avalanche, too.” Thomas frowns at his boots. “Of course that wasn’t a good idea for them, so maybe it’s not for you either.”

“I’ve never seen it.”

Thomas quickly pops his head up to look at Minho. “Wait,  _ really _ ?”

Minho shrugs. “Uh, nope.”

Thomas opens his mouth to say something, but his thoughts freeze as he sees Minho’s Angevin glow. 

Minho shifts where he stands and then shoots a look at Newt that Thomas can’t quite interpret.

_ You should suggest he come by and watch it, _ Teresa says.  _ Or that you go to his dorm and watch it. _

Thomas glances down at her and then back up to Minho.

Minho coughs again. “Well, I’d better get inside. I’m sure you wanna get home so you’re not out here freezing any more than you have been.”

“Right,” Thomas nods. “Yes. Yeah, no. Absolutely.”

Minho nods.

“Alright.”

“Okay.”

_ Good grief. _

“Shut up,” Thomas says through gritted teeth and then squeezes his eyes shut.

Minho laughs quietly. “It’s okay. I’m sure she wants to get home, too.” He jogs up the steps to the door of his dormitory and waves down to Thomas. “See ya around.”

Thomas nods and salutes him. He spins on his heel and walks off toward the Pine Tree that will bring him to his dormitory.

_ Did you just salute him? _

Thomas briefly wishes he’d never fixed his Angevin in the first place.

  
  


\--

  
  


Minho doesn’t come to visit him at work the next day, nor the day after. When Thomas finally does have a day off, he spends most of it complaining to Gally about the disaster that happened.

After explaining to Gally how Minho got stuck at the cafe, ended up having to walk in the cold weather with Thomas because Teresa doesn’t know how to act in public, and then the disaster of a Lord of the Rings reference, he finally falls back on his bed and decides that maybe it  _ is  _ good that they weren’t going to the Bells together. At this rate, he doesn’t see them going anywhere together.

  
  


\--

  
  


The morning of the Bells does nothing to assuage Thomas’ feelings on how the day is going to turn out. The first thing he has to deal with is one of Gally’s sneakers missing a lace, and when he asks Teresa about it over the Angevin where it is, she tells him she simply ate it. So that’s an issue he’ll have to deal with later before Gally returns to the dorms. 

He tells Gally not to pick him up and that he’ll make his own way over to the ceremony, but he should have known that wouldn’t bring any further fortune. He gets into the shower to find he’s run out of shampoo, it takes him too long to find a pair of matching socks, Teresa seems more than temperamental today, and by the time he’s finally ready and leaving, he has to double back to grab his phone.

He checks his messages as he waits in line for Saxe Oak, cursing himself for turning Gally down for the ride. He didn’t want to chance Gally seeing his sneakers all messed up, but now he’s running late while he deals with public transportation. He flicks through messages and emails and finally steps into the oak with Teresa.

_ You seem extra antsy today, _ she says as Thomas cues in the destination.

“It’s the Bells, Teresa. I’ve been waiting all semester for this.”

_ And you’re going to start it off by acting like a rocket about to take off any minute?” _

Thomas rolls his eyes and doesn’t bother with a response. He steps out of the Oak by the Dean’s office and then quickly scrambles across the lawn over to the Mowbray Willow and tucks himself into the line just before a gaggle of freshmen reach it. 

He taps his foot waiting for the line to continue moving forward. It’s not like there’s a strict time limit. The Bells don’t ring until midnight, but the twelve hours leading up to it is packed with activity, and Thomas doesn’t really feel like missing out on any chance to get closer to Minho to strengthen his chances of making him fall in love with him.

He drafts two texts to Minho on his phone, but ends up deleting them both. He’ll see him when he gets there. It’s not like he has any idea what to say at the moment anyway. As he steps into the Willow, he starts going into a full blown manic trying to figure out how to even say hi.

_ You could try ‘hi.’ _

_ Shut up, Teresa. Just stay out of this. _

Teresa’s feathers ruffle as she takes a step away from him.

The Willow opens and Thomas nearly spills out of it, Teresa waddling quickly after him. 

_ Could you slow down? You look like a disaster when you’re running like that. You’re too eager. _

_ I’m already late, _ Thomas thinks, feeling the Angevin heating against his chest as his heart ricochets inside.

_ I don’t think they’re gonna notice if you’re ten minutes late. Winston is late all the time. _

Thomas ignores her as he crests the top of the hill and sees the long staircase leading down into the valley. It’s already plenty crowded with not only students from campus, but people from all over Denver. There are tents and stands set up and little campfires set up around the lounge area. Food and drink stands expel smoke and different scents that mix with stands selling sweets and scented candles. He takes a deep breath and then starts working his way down the stairs, the cold railing biting through the thin material of his gloves. It sends a chill up his spine and he pulls his shoulders closer to try to keep out the cold. 

When he reaches the bottom of the stairs, he starts walking toward the valley and finally pulls out his phone to call Gally. 

After wandering through the crowd and almost getting trampled by a bunch of jocks from Englewood, he finally sees Frypan’s quokka popping in and out of a snowbank. He jogs over, Teresa quickly waddling behind him, and looks around. “Alby, where’s Fry?” he asks the quokka, knowing he won’t actually get an answer. 

_ There they are, _ Teresa finally says, looking in the other direction. 

Thomas spins and, sure enough, finds Gally, Frypan and Winston all standing around holding mugs of something letting off steam. His chest sinks and his gaze rakes over the surrounding people.  _ Wait,  _ he starts, heart picking up again,  _ where’s Minho. _

_ I don’t see him. Doesn’t look like he’s here yet. _

Thomas pulls his phone out, but doesn’t see any messages. After realizing he has no idea what to text Minho, still, he tucks it back into his pocket and walks over to the other three. 

“Hey! Look who finally made it!” Frypan says, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah. You know Alby’s building a snow fort over there. He’s gonna get stepped on.”

Frypan leans to the side to look past Thomas as his Angevin glows bright blue. “Eh, he’s fine.”

“Where, uh,” Thomas begins and then clears his throat as he reconsiders his question away from the topic of Minho. “Should we grab one of the fire pits for now?”

“I’ve got Ben sleeping at one already,” Gally says and then takes a long sip of his drink. “I figure now that you’re here, we can walk around a bit. See what they’ve got at the stands before we settle into the circle.”

“Oh,” Thomas nods. “Right, now that… Now that I’m here. And we’re all here. We’re all here, right?” He furrows his brows and looks around at the four of them. “I think… yeah, we’re good.”

Gally and Frypan exchange a look that Thomas ignores.

  
  


They start winding through the crowd and Thomas finds that he does get quite distracted sometimes by the stands. He looks at homemade scarves that Sonya and her bengal make together. (Some people are just unfairly good at using their Angevins.) They pass a bunch of hot cider that one of the cafe’s on the outskirts of town makes from fresh apples that her squirrel procures for her. He considers buying one of the containers of fresh baked cookies from Mary, but when her burro eyes him and drags a hoof through the snow, Thomas decides to pass and swiftly moves on to the next stand.

Still, no matter how many distractions there are, Thomas continuously finds himself pulling his phone from his pocket to check if he has any missed calls or messages. 

Finally, when the sun is setting over the hills, Gally’s hand clasps on Thomas’ shoulder and stills him. “So, what did you say?”

“What did I say about what?”

Gally nods down at Thomas’ phone. “You’ve been checking the thing every five minutes for a response.”

Thomas frowns at his phone and then back up at Gally. “I didn’t text him.”

“You didn’t-” Gally cuts himself off in favor of sighing. “So why are you checking your phone every other minute?”

Thomas sighs and shakes his head. “Whatever, Gally. Where is he?”

“He didn’t tell you?” Gally asks innocently.

“ _ Gally _ .” 

He gives space to laugh before he responds. “He said he caught a cold the other night or something? He’s not making it.”

Thomas’ stomach drops. “Are you kidding me?”

“You’d know that if you’d just stop being a little bitch and just text him.”

Thomas frowns down at his phone. “So he’s not coming.”

“Not according to what he said this morning when I showed up to pick him up.”

Thomas drops his hands to his sides and then shoves his phone in his pocket. “Great. Fantastic. Great.”

“Why don’t you just go over there if you wanna see him so badly?”

“That defeats the entire point, Gally. We have to be here in the valley for the Bells.”

“You and these stupid bells, Greenie. When are you gonna get it through your head that they’re not real. It’s just a myth.”

Thomas turns from Gally and stalks off toward the next stand. 

The next few hours tick slowly by. Eventually, they tire of wandering the stands and tents and make their way to their fire pit. Teresa warms her feathers by the fire and Thomas slumps in his chair with his hands shoved deep in his coat pockets. Frypan, Winston and Gally keep conversation going and once in a while they’ll ask Thomas a question directly to involve him, but mostly they let him stew in his own anger.

He spends most of the time thinking about the other night when Minho got stuck at the cafe with him while he was working. He’d seen Minho only had a light denim jacket with him, yet he’d still sat him at the corner table next to the draft. And then, Minho felt obligated to walk home with him that night in the cold weather and snow. And  _ then  _ they stood outside talking about  _ Lord of the Rings  _ of all things. When it comes down to it, Thomas decides it’s fully his fault that Minho is sick and now he won’t even get a chance to follow through with his plan. He decides this finalizes what he’d always assumed about himself: he’s just bad luck.

He’s pulled from his thoughts when he feels something nudge up against his leg. He shifts his leg to the side to push Ben away and continues staring at the fire. He feels the nudge again and moves his leg harder to the side. 

“What the…?” Gally says quietly.

_ Tom,  _ Teresa says.

_ What.  _ He shifts his gaze to look at her and finds Ben sitting next to her by the fire. He looks down at the thing nudging against his leg again to find Newt, Minho’s leopard. Thomas snaps his head up and looks around them, but there’s no sign of Minho. He looks back down at Newt and scratches behind his ear. “What’re you doing here, buddy? Where’s Minho?”

Newt pushes his head against Thomas’ hand and then nudges his knee again before turning around and trotting away.

“What is he doing here?” Frypan asks, turning in his chair to look around.

_ I think he’s telling you to follow him.  _

Thomas looks over at Teresa and shakes his head.  _ I can’t. The Bells are gonna ring in ten minutes.  _

_ So?  _ She flutters her wings again and Ben sneezes.  _ It’s not like Minho’s here anyway. What do you have to lose? _

Thomas considers this, but also thinks that he can really use as much good luck as he can get. He really doesn’t feel like risking it by leaving the valley for the ringing of the Bells. There’s another nudge against his knee and he looks back down to find Newt staring up at him. 

“Thomas, I think he wants you to follow him,” Winston says. 

Thomas looks up around the circle.

“Well would you look at that,” Gally says, smirking. 

Thomas narrows his eyes at Gally but then refocuses his attention on Newt.

“Better hurry,” Gally says. “You’ve only got ten minutes before the Bells ring.”

Newt paws at the snow again and huffs out a breath as he stares at Thomas.

“Fine,” Thomas says, more to Newt than to Gally.  _ Tss. You’re coming. _

_ Why? _

_ Because I said so, Teresa. Come on. _

Thomas and Teresa follow Newt as he slinks through the crowd that starts to gravitate toward the hill with the Bells. They’re walking against the traffic now and something twists in Thomas’ gut. He really shouldn’t be leaving the hill. He’s been waiting for tonight all semester and now that it’s here, he’s walking away from the Bells. He glares at the back of Newt’s head.  _ This better be worth it. _

_ Oh, relax, I’m sure it is,  _ Teresa says, dodging a cow.

They break through the edge of the crowd and make toward the eastern tree line and it’s there that Thomas sees Minho leaning against a tree, shoulders hunched together. 

_ Look at that, _ Teresa says.

_ Shut up.  _ Thomas walks closer and nods at Minho. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Minho nods with a small laugh. “Wanted to make it down for the Bells. Sorry, I didn’t mean to pull you away. You could’ve waited til after.”

“No, no, it’s fine.” He looks at Minho now as he stands closer. His nose is bright red, he’s got a thick scarf wrapped around him and there are shadows beneath his eyes. There’s no denying he’s definitely sick, and guilt sinks low into Thomas’ gut. “Sorry I got you sick.”

“You?” Minho asks. “What do you mean? I’m the one who went out in a blizzard with barely anything to keep me warm.”

“Yeah, but you could’ve-”

“Let’s not play the blame game,” Minho laughs. “Where are Gally and them?”

Thomas’ chest tightens.  _ God, I’m so stupid. Of course he wanted all of us to come over here, not just me. _

Teresa busies herself pulling a twig out of her wing.

“Uh,” Thomas scratches the back of his head. “They didn’t wanna miss the Bells. I figured I’d come over because it’s just the Bells, you know? No big deal. Just a big rumor anyway.”

“Right, right,” Minho nods and looks down at his boots.

“Um, here,” Thomas nearly chokes himself trying to unravel his scarf. “You look cold.”

“No, please, no,” Minho laughs and holds out a hand to stop Thomas. “No, it’s okay.”

Thomas freezes and awkwardly rewraps it around his neck.

“Sorry,” Minho adds quickly. “It’s just… we’re not gonna go back and forth with this whole, I’m sick, then you’re sick, then I’m sick thing.”

“Yeah,” Thomas nods. “No, of course.” He tucks his hands into his pockets and stares at the snow between them. 

There’s a shifted silence between them as they both stand there. Behind Thomas, the crowd continues moving closer to the hill as the time ticks closer to the Ringing of the Bells.

“Um, you should get back to your dorm, then,” Thomas says suddenly. “You know, so you don’t get sicker or anything.”

Minho blinks at him. “Right, yeah.” He nods and looks down at the snow. “Yeah, you’re right. I should go.”

Thomas nods and tries to think of any excuse to keep Minho around. Despite everything, they’re here together in the valley for the Bells. Isn’t this what he wanted?  _ Why does he have to be sick?  _

_ Well, that’s what happens when you go outside in a denim jacket. _

Thomas turns to Teresa and glares at her. In the corner of his eye, he sees the Angevin around Newt’s neck light up. He suddenly feels incredibly self-conscious. 

“Right,” Minho says. “Well, okay then. Uh, sorry I pulled you away. I don’t even really know why I came. I guess just tradition, you know?” 

Thomas nods longer than necessary before he finally remembers to speak. “Yeah, no. Yeah. Tradition.”

“I’ll let you get to the Bells.”

“Oh, it’s - they’re just a stupid legend.”

“Right, yeah,” Minho nods. “Okay then. I’m gonna…” he tilts his head to the side and then awkwardly waves at Thomas before turning and walking off toward the Maple.

Newt stares at Thomas for a moment before his Angevin glows and then he lets out something eerily close to a sigh. He turns and trots off after Minho.

_ Way to go, Romeo, _ Teresa says.

“Shut up,” Thomas hisses at her, but his words are drowned out when a loud ringing suddenly takes over the valley. Thomas freezes, his bones locking and his breath catching in his lungs. He turns and looks up to the northern hill and in the distance he sees the bells swinging back and forth as they clang across the valley, echoing through the trees and hills. There’s a loud cheering from the crowd and Thomas allows himself a moment to deflate.

“So,” Minho’s voice cuts in and stirs Thomas alert. 

Thomas turns quickly and looks back at Minho, who’s staring up at the bells. 

“I know you think it’s a hoax, but did you wish for anything anyway?”

Thomas pauses, wondering if he should actually say something. Perhaps he could just make something up, if only to keep Minho here for conversation. In the end, he shakes his head. “No,” he says. “I didn’t.”

Minho nods. “Yeah. Me neither.”

They stand quietly while the Bells continue to ring across the valley. He turns and looks over his shoulder as they sound. There’s a ripple across the crowd as the people of Denver try to grasp on to the last wisps of good luck before they run out of time. Thomas thinks of his original plan: to be standing at the center of the valley kissing Minho while everyone bustles around him. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it really was just a placebo like Gally said it was. For someone with such bad luck as Thomas, he doesn’t know why he’d even try to believe in something like this. 

The ringing starts to fade then as there are no more new clangs. Now, all that’s left is just echo across the valley, and Thomas lets the last of his hope seep out of him. 

“Well, I should go,” Minho says quietly then. “Get back to the dorm.”

Thomas looks back at him again and registers what he said. “Right. Yeah.”  _ We should head back to the group, _ he says to Teresa.

Next to her, Newt licks his paw and his Angevin grows bright around his neck.

Thomas chances a glance up at Minho, but Minho is staring at Newt. He looks exasperated and resigned and it makes Thomas’ chest sink even further.

There’s a low growl from Newt as he drops his paw and then he walks over to Thomas and nudges his head against his knee. 

“ _ Newt _ ,” Minho hisses. He looks up at Thomas. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

Newt walks around Thomas and nudges the back of him, pushing him toward Minho.

Thomas stumbles forward and glances back at Newt.

“Oh my god, I’m sorry,” Minho says quickly. “I swear that’s not me.”

Thomas doesn’t need the confirmation from Minho. The Angevin around Newt’s neck doesn’t glow the slightest as he pushes his head against Thomas again.

Suddenly there’s a snapping sound and a gasp from Minho. Thomas looks up to find Teresa snapping at Minho’s heels, causing him to jump forward closer to Thomas. 

Newt and Teresa finally stop, and Thomas looks up to find himself inches away from Minho.

Minho’s face blanches and he ducks down to cough into his jacket.

“Um. You should go home,” Thomas says, dumbly. “Drink tea...or something.”

_ Go make him tea, idiot, _ Teresa says.

“Shut up.”

Minho looks up at Thomas in question.

“Not - not you.” Thomas curses at Teresa over the Angevin.

He watches as Minho’s Angevin glows then.  _ Oh my god, he’s probably telling Newt to just eat me. That’s what he was doing, wasn’t it? _

Minho clears his throat then and shoves his hands in his pockets. There’s a huffing sound from Newt. Minho sighs. “Do you have any tea suggestions, then? You’re the pro, after all.”

Thomas chews his lip. 

_ Now’s your chance, dumbass,  _ Teresa says.  _ Go over and make him tea. The Bells are done anyway, what do you have to lose? _

Thomas works his jaw over unspoken words, trying to figure out how to proceed. He sees the Angevin around Minho’s neck glow once more before he finally just blurts out, “I can come by? I’ll make you something that will work?”

The Angevin around Minho dies out immediately as he stares at Thomas. “Really?”

Thomas nods before he can backpedal on his offer. “Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean, like you said. I’m the pro, right? Tea pro.”

_ Okay, shut up, don’t ruin the moment,  _ Teresa says.

Thomas clasps his mouth shut in a line.

“Um, alright,” Minho nods. “Yeah, that could work. Maybe, if you want, you can make me watch that movie about the elves.”

“It’s not about-” Thomas sighs and laughs. “Yeah, that sounds fun. I hear it helps when you’re sick.” He gestures forward toward the Maple and the four of them step over to it.

_ You should kiss him. _

_ Shut up, Teresa. He’s sick. _

_ Whatever. _

Minho presses his hand against the censor and they wait in silence, the echoes of the bells still taking up most of the space in the valley. “These things, suck, huh?”

Thomas glances up at him and then over his shoulder at the Bells. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“I mean, if they really worked, I wouldn’t be sick.”

“Trust me, I know.” He freezes on the spot.  _ Please tell me I said that to you. _

_ Nope,  _ Teresa says,  _ loud and clear to Minho. _

Thomas stares at the Maple, refusing to even breathe. He feels Minho’s eyes on him and he finally chances a glance at him. 

Minho’s got an odd sort of skepticism in his yes, but there’s a hint of a smile before he drops his gaze to the ground and then Thomas looks away as well, only to find Newt and Teresa exchanging an odd glance of their own.

_ Newt says you’re both dumbasses. _

Thomas furrows his brows at her.  _ Wait. You guys can talk to each other? _

“Uh, Thomas?” Minho asks.

Thomas looks over at him to find Minho staring at Newt and Teresa with furrowed brows. “Can they… talk… to each other?”

Teresa flaps her wings and storms off into the Maple as it opens, honking loudly at them, and Newt follows her into the tree, slumping to the floor with a loud sigh through his snout. 

Thomas exchanges another look with Minho and finds himself able to smile back at him.

“Well,” Minho says, scratching at his eyebrow. He gestures for Thomas to enter the Maple first. “It looks like we’ve got some things to talk about.”

Thomas steps further back against the Maple as Minho squeezes in. Newt stands up and nudges Thomas forward again as the Maple closes, and Thomas stumbles forward, Minho catching his arms to steady him. He looks up to Minho’s smile and then meets his eyes. There’s a tinge of pink at his cheeks. “Right,” Thomas nods. “I guess we do.”

As the Maple transports them back to the dorms, they share a small laugh within the confines of the tree, and though Thomas can’t hear the Bells anymore, he thinks Minho’s laughter might bring him a bit more luck than they ever could.


End file.
